K-Pop Round Up: BLACKPINK, Wendy & John Legend, AOMG, and Sam Kim

It hasn’t been that long since my last K-Pop Round Up, but I’m already here with another post which is always great! This post will be covering more non-KPOP songs as I’ll be discussing about recently released music from Khip-hop and R&B artists such as AOMG and Sam Kim. Of course, I can’t leave out K-Pop acts as well so I’ll be talking about BLACKPINK and Red Velvet’s Wendy.

BLACKPINK & Dua Lipa

More collaborations with artists in the Western industry is now a little bit more common in K-Pop thanks to BTS’s big and unexpected breakthrough in the U.S. BLACKPINK themselves have also taken the opportunity to collaborate with another mainstream artist in the Western industry in their collaboration ‘Kiss and Make Up’ with Dua Lipa. I’m probably the only person out there who has heard of Dua Lipa, but have never checked out any of her music or songs so I wasn’t so sure what to expect with this collaboration. To my surprise, the collaboration wasn’t bad. It’s not a song that I would listen to repeatedly, but it’s also a song that I wouldn’t skip if it came up on shuffle on my phone or something.

The BLACKPINK members sound fine for the most part. I read some comments that Jisoo sounded a bit off in this song and as soon as I heard her part, I could understand why some people were a bit disappointed with how she sounded in the song (not at her but just how she was recorded). I do admit that Jisoo sounds a bit funny in this song (it’s as if her voice is being strained or something) which is odd because she does NOT sound like that at all in any of the other BLACKPINK songs. I’m not really sure how the recording process to this collaboration went down, but Jisoo usually sounds much better than this in other tracks so I hope this was just a one-time mistake. Regardless, ‘Kiss and Make Up’ happened and maybe we’ll hopefully get to see the girls perform this live with Dua Lipa one day.

Wendy (Red Velvet) & John Legend

I generally don’t listen to SM’s Station songs because I find that they’re a little less interesting and fun than the albums they put out for their groups so I rather just check out the official songs and albums instead. With that being said, Wendy’s collaboration ‘Written in the Stars’ with John Legend was a song that pleasant to listen to, but one that also wouldn’t have hurt if I didn’t listen to it. The song has a simple acoustic tune to it (though it sounds a bit familiar and I can’t quite put where I exactly heard a similar kind of tune before) and both Wendy and John Legend sound great in it (as usual). However, it was just quite that and there was nothing really more to the track that was exciting. It’s a nice and simple listen and a track that you would listen while at a coffee shop or traveling somewhere out and about.

Of course, I think this track was more about the collaboration itself than the song. Collaborating with a star like John Legend is bound to generate news and waves so I can see why SM chose to collaborate with him. While I generally liked Wendy in here, I do wonder what the song would have sounded like with SM’s other female powerhouses such as f(x)’s Luna. Overall, the collaboration was breezy and cute and relaxing and nothing more to it.

AOMG

Hoody – I’m always waiting for Hoody (the only female member of Khip-hop label AOMG) to release new music because I’ve found that I’ve generally enjoyed most of her songs over the years. She released hit after hit last year with ‘Hangang’ and then ‘Can’t Wait’ which were easily two of my favorite tracks of the year (and still are to this day). She’s released a few tracks since then, but they weren’t as impressive for me as her other tracks were. Thankfully, she’s returned with a new track again and this time it’s a collaboration with Crush. Titled ‘Sunshine’, Hoody basically describes and compares her lover to that of the sun: bright, warm, and happy. However, the music video kind of tells the opposite and shows Hoody and Crush being petty neighbors with each other. I’m assuming they’re in a relationship with each other in the music video and are just going through some problems or they’re actually just petty petty neighbors with each other, lol. Regardless, the ending to this scene is what made the entire music video even more worthy of watching as Simon D comes in on Hoody and Crush laying on each other in her apartment unit. The scene was so unexpected and humorous. Overall, I liked the collaboration as well as the funny music video!

Loco – Watching Loco act sad and heart-broken in a music video is so funny and comedic to me because we always see him as the cheerful, upbeat, and happy type of boy. Of course, he’s not always happy and there were certainly times where he was sad and heart-broken like he is in his recent release ‘It Takes Time’ featuring Colde. It was funny how he was trying to act heart-broken or sad in this track though because you could tell that he wanted to laugh at times. LOL. But anyways, ‘It Takes Time’ is basically a break-up song where Loco expresses himself and the regrets and pain that he has over his break-up. A song like this would have been perfect when I ended my first relationship LOL, but now I know which song to listen to when I do suffer another heartache again (if I ever do in which I hope I don’t). ‘It Takes Time’ is overall a chill, relaxing, and peaceful R&B song and the music video was cute. It’s not something I’d listen to again per se, but Loco never fails with his music so this one too is a hit.

DJ Wegun – When I say AOMG never disappoints, I truly do mean AOMG never disappoints. DJ Wegun is not as well-known in AOMG compared to other artists from the same label such as Jay Park (obviously), Simon D, Loco, Gray, Hoody, and etc. However, he recently released an album titled ‘Band Wegun Effect’ with 8 tracks overall, featuring artists such as Jay Park himself, Gray, nafla, and more. The title track titled ‘서툴러’ featuring sogumm and rapper Punchnello was such an unexpected surprise. I honestly wasn’t going to check out the song because I wasn’t as familiar with DJ Wegun as the other AOMG artists. However, I’m so so glad that I checked out this song because it’s one of my most listened to tracks in all of this year. Combine sogumm’s unique and husky vocals with Punchnello’s calm and poised rapping and you get an amazing collaboration. The song itself is just an absolute charm and I think sogumm’s vocals is a big reason for that. I love this song so much I’ve been listening to it nonstop and I even had it as ‘Song of the Week’ on my blog for about two weeks in a row LOL. Seriously, listen to this song at least once if you have the time. As for me, I’ll need to check out the rest of the album as I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Sam Kim

I love Sam Kim and I’ve been a fan of his since I first discovered him about two years ago, but why didn’t I know that he was going to release a new album? *cries* Regardless, I know now and I’m here for it! Singer Sam Kim from Antenna is back with another album and new songs and as usual, he definitely doesn’t disappoint. Divided into two parts, the first part of the album titled ‘Sun and Moon’ consists of three songs. The title track is called ‘Make Up’ and also features Crush (he’s been featuring in so many songs recently it’s great). In ‘Make Up’, Sam Kim expresses the want and need to “make up” with his lover and communicate with them again. However, it’s the chorus of the track that is the true stand out and was what won me over. The entire chorus has so much going on, but they all combine and mix so well.

‘Make Up’ is another amazing song from Sam Kim and I’m just glad that he’s back with another album. I still listen to songs from his debut album ‘I Am Sam’ to this day because they are that amazing. I have another feeling that I’ll be repeating this next album from him just as much as well. Track ‘Sun and Moon’ from the music film for Sam Kim’s album also had me jumping and squealing in excitement. The song sounds SO SO good and Sam Kim has returned with great music again. I’ve always loved his songs and I’m still loving his songs. Here’s to hoping Sam Kim will receive more recognition and success with his latest album like he deserves 🙂